Sunday, November 10, 2013

Basketball Season's on the Horizon.....

.﻿﻿﻿...I often find myself thinking back on the adventure which has been my life. Perched as I have so often been in my favorite old rocking chair (the one covered in zebra hide), I am reminded of how my dear Archer carried the fine chair through darkest Africa, determined to bring it home and find it a position of appropriate grandeur. It, like myself has seen the finest of days…and here we sit.....

….basketball is upon us and I am again reminiscing with my friend Mildred over a cup ‘o tea. Although I never myself played, I vividly remember my father following the sport. Always the liberal, and a huge fan of women in sports, I recall his outrage in 1929 when women’s b’ball, as they call it these days, had its "low low’s" and "low high’s". Most people in the states, especially in the East, were largely concerned with finances and jobs; the button business certainly dipped along with the clothing industry in general, but the family business carried little debt, so we were able to limp along without laying off at the plant.

Sadly, sports fans in Colorado were also robbed of women’s basketball, when the Colorado Medical something or other decided that sports were bad for women’s health and all girls competitive sports in the state were canceled. This was the “lowest of the lows” according to my father. (I know I quote my father a great deal, but he did have a way with words….and I fear I’ll entirely alter the essence of the conversation if I change his words……….)

That same year the national championships were revived in Kansas, adding a beauty contest to the event. At the time, I was 17, and found this quite exciting. My father, on the other hand, applauded the new life to women’s sports, but thought the beauty “thing”, as he called it, watered down the sport. He also thought it was a smack in the face to women’s athletics….this is what he called the “low high’s”.

I now understand. One step forward, a half step back…but I suppose one does what one must to advance the position for women….after all, it was nearly the 30’s….soon it will be the 30’s again, and I hope we can look back on a century and be proud. The states have done quite nicely, but I fear much of the world has a long way to go.....astoria

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About Me

I've seen the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s. I've lived them fully, wrung the life from them. I'm known as an East Coast button heiress with all the finery that goes with it. I socialize, travel and have only the finest surroundings, at least that's what others think. But not many know the real me....I'm a modern woman of the times. I dabble in and travel “off the grid”. I might wear something off beat, “hang” with odd characters, and travel to unknown, or little known, parts of the world. And yes, I've lived oh so fashionably, but also raucously, always lavishly, sometimes responsibly and ultimately scandalously. I am, of course, fictitious and fun. Follow my steps through time, mark my footsteps in fashion. It has been quite a life....a life well lived, and very well worn!